Paradoxality of self-identification in the speech of old believers

The article deals with the peculiarities of self-identification in the discourse of Transbikalian old believers (Semeiskiye), one of the local Russian ethno-religious groups in Buryatia distinguished for their linguistic, cultural, everyday life and religious features. The Semeiskiye possess self-identification diffusion of self-consciousness: in spite of their clear awareness of their group identity they face certain difficulties with ethnic and religious self-identification. The group identification of the Semeiskiye co-exists with the diffusion of their ethnic, regional and religious identification which is determined by naive, simplified beliefs in their mind. This ambiguity finds its expression in the paradoxical oppositions of the socio-cultural category «friend-or-foe»: the paradox of ethnic identification is revealed in the opposition «Semeiskiy - Russian»; the paradox of regional identification (belonging to some locality) is represented by the oppositions a) «Semeiskii - Sibirian», b) «Semeiskii - Raseisky»; the paradox of religious self-identification is manifested in the opposition «orthodox believer - old believer». In the situation of inner self-identification religious belonging is primary, there by linguistic, everyday life and cultural peculiarities are secondary, being realized only in situation of comparison, in the face-to-face communication, while in the situation of outer self-identification in day-to-day lafe, linguistic, cultural and everyday life identifications become primary and the religious one becomes secondary. Nevertheless the oppositions «Semeiskiy - Russian», «Semeiskiy - Sibirian», «old believer - orthodox believer» are not paradoxical at all, when being looked upon closely, but are the result of the dialect meaning development of the words «Sibirian» and «orthodox believer». The opposition «Semeiskiy - Russian» is determined by the fact that the Semeiskiye are distinguished among the other Russian people inhabiting Transbaikalia due to contrast and cultural significance which mark out this cluster of identification characteristics. This factor promotes the safety of the Semeiskiye as a specific group of Russian people in spite of the «drift» of their identification.